Tag Archives: grants

As states experience fiscal challenges, higher education institutions across the U.S. are facing reductions in publicly funded support. One of the ways to counter this loss of revenue is by winning grants from government and private entities. Pima Community College is actively competing for this source of funding.

Currently, we have 45 active grants, totaling more than $50 million. The grants range in size from $5,000 to $15 million. The grants serve 12,000 students and employ 200 staff and faculty. They provide student support services, curriculum development, professional development for faculty, classroom redesign and other services.

Our most recent grant award is a $3.1 million Hispanic-Serving Institutions Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (HSI-STEM) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant will expand student support services and tutoring, and establish specific transfer pathways to Arizona’s four-year universities. The goal is to improve the academic and career success of Hispanic/low-income students by increasing the number of students who receive certificates or degrees from PCC in STEM-related majors, and-or who transfer to STEM fields at Arizona’s three four-year universities.

As Program Coordinator Lupe Waitherwerch told Tucson’s NPR radio affiliate, the goal of the grant is straightforward: “We want [students] to feel like they belong in college to begin with and … be able to believe that they can succeed.”

It’s important to put awards like these into context. First, PCC was in the running for the grant because we are viewed as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. More than 43 percent of our students are Hispanic, far exceeding the 25 percent threshold for an HSI designation from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

The College’s HSI designation benefits not only Hispanic-Latino students, however. Low-income students of every ethnicity are eligible to take advantage of the grant’s resources. As individuals, the students who achieve academic and career success through the program will become Pima County’s taxpayers, homebuyers and entrepreneurs of the future. Additionally, they will enhance southern Arizona’s reputation for producing employees capable of powering cutting-edge 21st-century industries. Everyone will benefit.

It’s also important to recognize the limitations of grants. While grants greatly enhance education of our students, they are not part of the operating budget; our fiscal hurdles remain. Additionally, grants pay for programs for a specific time. The HSI-STEM grant has a five-year life. It is a challenge for colleges and universities to find ways to institutionalize a promising initiative after the money runs out.

So PCC, like most of its counterparts in higher education, will continue to pursue grant opportunities that benefit our students and communities in order to ameliorate the impact of budget reductions. In that respect, we are walking the path well-trod by businesses everywhere. We’re adjusting and diversifying our revenue streams.

Pima Community College and nearly 270 other community colleges across the nation received some very good news out of Washington on Monday. We are the winners of $450 million in federal grant money aimed at providing workers with the skills they need to get ahead.

In our case, PCC has been awarded $2.5 million to train workers for careers in aviation, mining and manufacturing. As I noted in the news release that went out yesterday, the award is recognition of our potential to develop Southern Arizona’s 21st century economy.

It is significant that this was a competitive grant. Thanks to the hard work of many, PCC has demonstrated that we can compete on a national level for critically important resources. As Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez put it in an email to grant recipients, PCC now is part of “a community of forward-thinking and impassioned education professionals who are leading a movement to build opportunity and strengthen the skilled workforce we need for the future.”

Just as important, the job-training funds headed our way are intended to foster closer partnerships between community colleges and employers looking for skilled employees. Working in a more collaborative manner with business and industry is essential for PCC and all community colleges if we want to stay relevant in a rapidly changing economy. This grant will help us achieve that goal.

In a blog post published after the grant announcement, Secretary Perez referred to community colleges as “the secret sauce of workforce development, empowering communities, strengthening businesses and invigorating local economies.” As far as I’m concerned, he hit the nail right on the head.